The Root of the Problem
by Shade Penn
Summary: OneShot. Alice has been sent to Smokescreen to sort out her issues,and Smokescreen learns there's more to Alice's behavior than she let on. Implied AliceXBlurr. Implications of child abuse. *If you squint*


I own nothing. Except for Alice of course. Referece to Smallville.

* * *

Alice glared at the Autobot psychiatrist. She'd been sent to several human psychiatrist before to see why she was so hostile to everyone, especially the humans. She had opened up to none of them , so the Autobots had sent he to see theirs, since that Alice didn't identify herself as human, she might do more than just glare and snarl at him.

So far all she was doing was glaring at him.

Smokescreen decided to ask a fairly easy question. "So, how are you and Blurr doing?"

"Good." One syllable word. It wasn't much, but at least she was talking.

"How are you and Shortfuse getting along so far?"

"Well."

"How is your education going?"

"Fine."

"What do you think of the other Autobots?"

"They're alright."

"What do you think of the humans on base?"

"..." Twitch.

It was a response all on it's own, and Smokescreen noticed that she twitched when he metioned the word human. "How's your brother?"

"You've no doubt seen him since he probably has to come to see you too." Alice said, sounding bitter and scathing.

Smokescreen decided to _not _tell her that Jason _wasn't _in fact seeing him for sessions. Which he should recommend actually, since if Alice was unstable, then Jason was just dead insane. At least she didn't hang around with Decepticons in her spare time...or did she? Anyway... "How's your father?"

"...He's doing fine." The tone was lighter than when he had mentioned Jason.

"What about you mother?"

_That_ got a reaction, or rather, lack of. Alice's forming scowl, and heated glare were gone, her face completely blank. "My mother?" She said it the phrase as if it was a foreign concept.

"Yes, you do have a mother, don't you?" Smokescreen joked.

"No, I don't." Alice's tone was still blank.

Smokescreen stared at the in surprise. He really _hadn't_ expected her to answer, but she did. "But you must."

Alice shook her head. "No, I don't." she insisted. "I don't have a mother, I _had_ Alicia."

"Who's Alicia?"

Alice gave him a smouldering glare, placid expression gone like it wasn't even there. The Datsun then had the inkling that he found the source of Alice's problems.

"No one." Alice said coldly.

"She must be someone if you mentioned her by name." Smokescreen persisted.

Alice's eyes narrowed. "I'll tell you, but it doesn't leae this room, got it?" The hidden intent promised a painful offlining if this trust was broken.

"Got it."

Alice sighed. "She was...the one who had me." It came out awkward, like it didn't sound right.

"Your mother." Smokescreen assumed.

The glare was back. "No, she wasn't." her tone was razor sharp.

"But how could she have had you, and _not_ be your mother?" Smokescreen asked, genuinely confused.

"She may have had me, but she was never a mother. She was obsessive, clingy, possessive, and mentally unstable. Plus being meteor infected didn't help her stability much."

"Meteor infected?"

'It's people who got infected by kryptonite. My...with 'her' being infected, I got my kryptonite immunity, and teleportation power." Alice's slip didn't go unnoticed.

"Surely she must've loved you if she was willingly to have you."

"No, she didn't. I wasn't the only one she obsessed over. Why do you think I was born?"

"Organic procreation?"

Alice let out an icy laugh. "Yeah, 'after' she used red kryptonite on my father and got him to marry her, then BAM, here I am."

Even though he didn't show it, smokescreen winced. "Ho did you find out about that?"

"My dad told me after I asked him to tell me the truth, since I knew he was sugar coating it when I was younger." Alice shook her head. "Seriously, how hard is it to tel your kid they're a mistake?"

Smokescreen really did wince that time. "I'm sure someone wanted you."

"No." The answer was flat and dry. "Alicia was dead, dad was too busy protecting his weak, fragile, 'humans' and Jason didn't exist yet."

The way she said the word human was very much like how a Decepticon would say it; filled with disgust and haughty contempt. He decided to ask the question both she and Jason considered taboo. It was wrong, but it might break the barrier Alice had around herself. "But, aren't you part human?" Alice's reaction was immediate. Fierce scowl, scathing glare, and a tone filled with icy disdain. "I'm _not_ human!"

"You're a halfling, Alice, you and Jason both. You two have some humanity in you." Smokescreen insisted.

"Humanity is just a word." Alice said abruptly. "Our dad is the epitome of _humanity_, ain't it fraggin' hilarious when the aliens turn out to be more human than the actual humans?"

"Not all humans are bad, Alice. You just had a bad experience with-" he got nervous at her glare- "er, Alicia. -" Once again he stopped. The answer was so simple, yet so complicated with how out of proportion it was spun, and all from a single bad experience to base it on. "You're jealous of the humans, aren't you?"

There was a look of shocked surprise on her face. "I am not!"

"Then how do you explain your hostility for them?"

"They're weak, always needing to be protected!"

"Is that why you hate them so much? Because you think you father cares more for them?"

Alice sneered. "I was always second! He loved his 'precious humans' more than me and even Jason!" Angry tears started forming in her blue eyes.

"It's not healthy to keep that all bottled up."

Alice stared at the Datsun for a moment before she let out an eery sound. It was a wail with a sob as tears began to run down her cheeks. If anyone were to see this, they'd see the fierce, sarcastic halfling, now look like a tiny fragile doll letting out 18 yrs worth of sadness and hate. It was actually a relief to Smokescreen, not that he enjoyed seeing her cry, but to know that she had actual emotions and was capable of using them. He only had one thought seeing this display of manifested sadness.

_You may deny it, but you look more human now than you id before and...maybe now you can finally start to heal._


End file.
